Joyful Journeys CEC

As someone who's worked here, I've seen the nasty side of this place. At first glance, Joyful Journey's seems like a wonderful daycare and place to work. But when you really dig, it isn't. I don't even know where to start.

Discipline - "Disciplinary actions used to correct a child's behavior, guidance techniques and any activities in which the
children participate or observe at the Center shall not be detrimental to the physical or mental health of any
child." That's straight from the GA department of Early Learning. I have witnessed employees spanking children, forcing them to sit in soiled clothing as punishment for not making it to the potty, holding back meals from children, picking them up and throwing them down onto the bed because they faced the wrong way, shoving a child in a chair and pushing it in so hard the kid cried out, doing what is called the "Helicopter" where the grab the kid by the legs and swing them around while they cry, and then I even had another witness to this next one. Myself and a parent both witnessed a teacher swing up a kid by the arms, take him all the way across the room and slam him down so hard that I do believe if he wasn't still in diapers, he would have been bruised. The director took my statement and the parents statement and made a judgment call that she could place herself in the room and say it never happened. There are no cameras in the facility, so that allowed her to do that. I offhandedly mentioned it to the parent of the child and discovered they had not even been told. I was then disciplined for telling the parent, even though I was under the impression that they knew. That employee still works there. I have witnessed teachers taking older kids and putting them in diapers and placing them in the younger age groups telling them that since they peed their pants, they can play with the babies today. Not only are age groups not supposed to mix (i'll get more into that later) but I do believe that would affect their mental health.

Age Mixing - The first and last hour of the day are when age mixing is allowed, legally. It is like that for your child's safety. At JJ, the classrooms start mixing ages at 3:00, when the first lead teacher goes home. Not only is that against the law, it also puts your child's safety at risk and makes it so that your kid is in a different room every time you come to pick them up unless you arrive after 5:30.

Teacher's - This is more for people looking at working here. Some of the lead teacher's worked with the Director years ago, so they have all of their holiday vacations set to be off for YEARS out. Don't expect to ever have any kind of vacation time here, Lil and Jackie already took it. Marissa will have favorites every couple weeks or so, while you're her favorite, life is grand. As soon as you aren't though, life is a living hell. Marissa gets off on people being dependent on her, so be prepared for her to throw it in your face. If you need to go to the hospital, good luck being able to leave to do so. Unless you're her current favorite or your names are Lil, Jackie, or Devan (the abusive teacher on Adderall who goes nuts after 2:30 when it wears off) you won't get time off for anything. She moves the clock for clock in time every day, and all of the clocks are wildly different in time, just so she can tell you you're late, when you look down at your phone and you're actually early. But it's "her house", as she says, so you have to suck it up.

Parents - You best believe if you say anything to Marissa, she WILL sh*t-talk you to the employees. Even if it's just conversation, she'll talk about how you never shut up, if you're complaining (and usually rightfully so), she's going to go to the rooms and make fun of you. Just don't say anything to her unless you're kissing up, or she's going to sh*t-talk you.